How anti-immigration politics poses risk to £42 billion a year brought to UK by overseas students
Immigration has become an explosive political issue, with the tendency to conflate illegal immigration with legal migration a significant part of the problem
Opposition to immigration has long dominated British politics. It was the major factor in the 2016 Brexit vote, and remains the mainstay of support for Reform. However, since hitting a peak of 944,000 in 2023, net migration has been falling dramatically, with the Office for National Statistics estimating the figure for 2025 at 171,000.
Some, yearning for ‘net zero’ immigration, may deem this still too high. However, it should be remembered that those classed as ‘immigrants’ include British people returning from overseas and large numbers of international students. Last year, 294,000 non-EU migrants came to the UK to study. Remove them from the net migration figure and it would actually be negative.
Some might question the idea that students who visit for a year or four – and go home for the summer holidays – should be officially classed as ‘migrants’. But regardless of that debate, there is no question that many of the UK’s world-leading universities have come to rely on the income they provide. The UK economy also benefits substantially, with a study by Universities UK International and others finding that overseas students were worth £41.9 billion in 2021/22.
Potential financial damage to universities
Despite this, with control of immigration in mind, the UK Government is now making the requirements for universities who wish to enrol foreign students significantly tougher. Writing in The Scotsman today, Professor James A Miller, convener of Universities Scotland, warns the new system could harm “the UK’s global standing as a study destination” and cause “financial and reputational damage to largely compliant institutions”.
Immigration has become an explosive political issue, with the tendency to conflate illegal immigration, which must be addressed, with legal migration a significant part of the problem.
However, universities, farmers, the NHS, social care, hospitality and other sectors rely significantly on migrants. It’s time for politicians to stop running shy of this basic fact.
And when the migrants in question bring tens of billions of pounds to the UK and then leave – as overseas students do – letting anti-immigration sentiment throw up obstacles to their arrival could end up being almost as big an act of national self-harm as Brexit.
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